Comparison between Visitors and the Hardships of Escape for Vietnamese Women

The visitors and The Hardships of Escape for Vietnamese Women are two pieces of literature that give an illustration of cultural change and assimilation. The world has become so global that cultural changes are so inevitable. People move from place to place in search of many things. In the first story, Bharati Mukherjee allows the readers to explore the world of a lonely Indian woman whose present home is America. This story is quite typical of events that take place in the world presently. People always acquire traits that prevail in their surrounding- Vinnita is not an exemption. The Vietnamese women also confirm the same trend of events by their adoption of a more liberal lifestyle in America.

Summary of the Visitors

The Visitors by Bharati Mukherjee is a story of Vinnita, an Indian woman who migrated into the United States of America from her native Calcutta community. Vinnita had lived in India from the time of her birth. This implies that all her code of conduct was informed by the Indian culture. Life in America was totally strange for this lady who was deeply rooted in the Indian culture. The author gives a picture of a struggling Vinnita. She is a bit confused and torn apart between her Indian way of life and that in America. Vinnita finally gives up and embraces American way of life. She invites people into her house while her husband Kamur is away (Bharati, 2004). Such invitations are totally unacceptable in the Indian culture. Such invites actually display a woman as adulterous.

Summary of the Hardships of Escape for Vietnamese Women

Van Luu develops a story of how Vietnamese women got assimilated into the American culture. These women left Vietnam to travel to America in search of better life (Luu, 1989). Luu illustrates the hardship faced by these women while in their travelling ship. The women later got transformed from the conservative culture of Vietnam into the liberal American lifestyle. In Vietnam, women are always expected to take a low profile in all matters. On reaching America, the immigrant women became more powerful that men could hardly contain them as before. Luu’s illustration of change is slightly different from that of Bharati. The Vietnamese women had to force their way into success while the Indian Vinnitta only got transformed after experiencing pressure in her new home.

My Opinion and Experience

The main theme in these two articles is cultural change. I totally agree with the idea that change always occurs due to movement from one place to another. It is true that one can only do exploits to the extent of his or her exposure. This means that nobody can do what they have never known about before. The acquisition of new way of life by the two sets of women is quite typical of the present society. My experience in school is quite synonymous to what Vinnitta and the Vietnamese women faced. Most students come to high school when very naïve and simple. However as high school days go by, most students commonly adopt pop culture. Most of my school colleagues have today adopted the pop culture. They embrace pop music and always talk about girls and night outs.

Conclusion

New acquaintances birth cultural transition. Vinnitta and the Vietnamese women both had a past life that was commonly full of their native way of norms. However as the two sets of women got to new environments, they all changed their way of life. Life in America is typical of free choice in decision. This is what the two authors confirm to us in their stories.